Among the Stars
by Twin-Lupus
Summary: Maka is in trouble again, but instead of the usual, it's with pirates. When a ship crashes outside her in and she inherits a treasure map, Maka joins the unsavory crew of the Shibusen and falls under the supervision of the ship's cook, Medusa. But a mutiny soon forces Maka to race to the treasure first. Treasure Planet AU
1. Chapter 1

**This is my entry for Resbang 2015! I hope you enjoy it. My partner smol-scythe was an absolute delight to work with, and I am so thrilled to finally unveil our work! Please read and review~**

* * *

"Again?" said Spirit in a defeated, weary tone.

Maka scowled up at him as she stepped over the threshold of their inn. There was a clatter as something was tossed to the floor at her feet, and her scowl deepened.

" _Caught again utilizing unlawful technology in a restricted zone_ ," came the metallic voice of the policebot. " _Make sure it does not happen again_."

"It won't," said Spirit, hand tight on Maka's shoulder. She jerked forward to break his grip and moved deeper into the house.

"It will," called a voice from one of the back tables. A man sitting deep in the shadows leaned forward, fading sunlight glancing off his glasses as he did so and rendering them temporarily opaque. He gave a friendly little wave that managed to be both genial and smarmy. "I am sure Maka will act out again; statistically, it's quite likely."

" _Are you the other parent?_ " asked the second policebot.

Spirit spluttered indignantly while the man chuckled.

"No, just a long time friend of the family. Professor Stein, at your service."

" _We do not require servicing_ ," the first informed them, which only increased Stein's laughter and caused Maka's face to grow red. It pointed an accusatory finger made of tempered steel at the contraption on the floor. " _We only require that the Rulebreaker no longer engage in illegal activity on any property in any manner. Self-sustained flight propulsion apparatus are not allowed in any capacity on Neh Vah D-A Prime_." The two policebots blinked their farewell light patterns at the inn and its patrons and rolled towards the door. The tread of one of their wheels crunched over the delicate, intricately crafted metal wings on the floor.

* * *

The roof of Chupacabra's was Maka's favorite hiding spot.

Her father's inn had many rooms, but they all felt as strange to her as the people who often stayed in them. They were impersonal, lifeless; she hated going in there every time she had to scrub slime from the floors or pry spines from the walls (their guests were not always the neatest). Her room was stuffy and small, filled with detritus from another life. She felt like she was suffocating in there.

So the open air on the roof of the inn was her only solace.

Neh Vah D-A Prime was the closest planet to the busy space port of Kaly Fornya. Her father had originally built the inn thinking that many of the weary travelers would want to spend the night away from the hubbub of the port, and when Maka had been small, that had been the case, but the improvements to space travel had made it harder and harder to make ends meet. Ships got larger, with more amenities and rooms, and patrons didn't need to disembark anymore. Her father's cozy inn no longer looked quaint and homey; it looked run down and dark compared to the gleaming cabins of the luxury liners.

Chupacabra's had started attracting the less savory of characters, the dregs of the travelers, and the regulars began to match the clientele. The inn now had a reputation for attracting people in long coats, fingers gently running along their vials of brightly colored liquids, and people in slinky outfits, draping themselves off of the bar patrons and slipping Spirit an extra doubloon for a good room upstairs.

She wondered if that was part of the reason her mother had left.

Maka huffed through her nose and pressed her cheek to her shoulder. The night air made the leather of her jacket cool to the touch; she found it comforting.

She could see the crescent shaped port hanging in the sky above her. From the surface of Neh Vah D-A, Kaly Fornya looked like an actual moon, gleaming and bright in the dark expanse of space, but it was a moon without phases, an unchanging face, divorced from the natural ebb and flow of the universe.

The stars stared down at her from beyond the port. Maka felt a tugging from deep within her chest, like an invisible string connected her heart to the twinkling stars. She had read so many books growing up about the voyages between those gaseous balls of light, the explorers who had been the first to step foot on an alien planet, the cartographers and botanists and miners who left their families behind in search of knowledge. Maka yearned to be one of their number.

She watched the stars for a long time. The night sky changed from deep purple to dark blue to an ebony, shifting slightly before her eyes. The pinpricks of light that made up the various constellations she knew by heart blurred as her eyes filled with tears. But one was particularly fuzzy, and Maka blinked rapidly. It grew brighter and brighter, and with a start, Maka realized it was actually growing _closer_.

Leaping to her feet, she watched the thing spark and crackle in the air like a firework. As it descended, a form began to take shape. It was a ship, with a thick, hardened body propelled by eight long thrusters falling from the sky, and it was aiming right at the end of Chupacabra's dock.

With a sickening thud, the ship slammed into the wooden dock. A rain of splinters fell from the old structure down into the empty abyss below. For a moment, it hung as if attached to a spider's thread, balanced precariously at the end of the dock, smoldering like a log. But then with another crash, the door opened and something spilled out of the ruined ship just as it began to teeter on the edge of the wood.

Maka sprung into action. She slithered down the drainpipe and cleared the few scraggly bushes at the base of the house. She kept her eyes on the massive black shape that was barely stirring at the foot of the ship. As she approached, it came into focus.

It appeared at first to be the figure of a woman draped in a long, black dress, but upon closer inspection, Maka could see the inhuman characteristics: the elongated teeth, the blood under the pale skin pumping black instead of red, the impossibly long fingers, covered in tiny hairs. The woman seemed to unfold as Maka knelt beside her, long black fingernails digging into the dock. Maka grasped at her shoulders, trying to guide her away from the still swaying ship.

"Bastards," spat the alien, blood dribbling from between plump lips.

"Please, we need to get away from here," Maka said. "The ship could fall-"

"Horrible bastards," the woman repeated. Maka tugged at her, and she hobbled forward, but her eyes were glassy, a faraway look in them.

There was a whirring and wheezing, and from the woman's back sprouted long, thin metal beams. They tried to settle underneath her, but Maka could see even by the weak light of the burning ship that many were damaged. She wobbled for a moment, then collapsed, the metal of her spindly legs wrenching and twisting horrifically.

"We need to move!" Maka insisted. The woman didn't answer, but allowed her arm to be pulled over Maka's shoulders. The eight metal legs tried in vain to keep up with Maka's pace, sparking at their ruined joints, but in the end Maka was huffing at the effort of dragging the alien alongside her.

A high-pitched groan pierced the air. Maka turned. The flames that had engulfed the ship had finally spread to the wooden dock, and the entire mess had cracked through the planks. In a shower of splinters, the ship and the end of the dock collapsed and fell through empty air, down into the gaping chasm below. Maka turned her back on the dock and yanked the spider woman forward.

"I will never let them have it," slurred the alien in Maka's ear. She struggled with the extra weight until finally she reached the back door of the inn. With a grunt, she lifted her booted foot and slammed open the door.

"What the-!"

Her father and Stein were sitting at one of the tables, hands curled around mugs of beer and a plate of Angorian mollusks between them. When the door burst open, Spirit had leapt to his feet, comically grasping at his chest. Stein was adjusting his glasses, eyes sharp on the creature in Maka's arms.

Strength giving way, the alien slid out of Maka's grasp and slumped to the floor. The feet of the metal legs protruding from her back scrabbled weakly against the ground.

"What is going on?" demanded Spirit.

"She's hurt!" Maka said, sinking to her knees. The woman suddenly reached out towards Maka, long, oddly hairy fingers clutching at the air in front of her face.

"You won't let them, will you?" she growled with an unexpected ferocity.

"Uh-"

"What kind of… what is that?" Spirit asked Stein over Maka's head. They saw innumerable species of aliens cycling in and out of Chupacabra's, but she hadn't been able to recognize what the woman was, and apparently her father hadn't either.

"I'm not sure." Stein knelt down, reaching for her slender wrist to feel for a pulse. "Is she lucid?"

"They'll be here shortly," rasped the woman. She tried to get up, but fell again against the floor. Spirit made a small noise in his throat, and Maka knew he was concerned about the slowly spreading brackish stains on the floor. Her long fingers dove beneath her cloak, rummaging around, and finally withdrew a small box. She shoved it into Maka's hands.

"Wh-"

"Don't let them have it." The alien was supporting herself on her arms now, pale face almost level with Maka's and eyes boring into hers. Maka wasn't sure whether it was makeup that made her lips so dark or if it was her blackened blood, but in the next second one of those pale, spidery hands had grasped her collar and dragged her forward. "Promise me!" spat the alien, a thin line of spittle dribbling down her chin.

"What?"

"Promise me!"

Maka's hands closed around the thin wrists in a panic. "I promise!"

"And make sure to kill that bitch of a sister of mine." Her eyes grew glassy again as she slumped forward. Maka scooted backwards out from under the weight of the woman.

"What even-"

"Maka, we need to-"

There was a shout from outside. Leaping to her feet, Maka dashed to the window. She could see dark shapes moving outside through the parted curtains. She squinted. There was a sudden flare that roared to life, and then another and then another, and she recognized flames.

"We need to leave!" she hissed, running back to her father and Stein, who was still examining the twitching woman. Maka grabbed them both at the elbow and tugged them forward. Stein reacted quickly, finding his feet and running, but Spirit stumbled. "C'mon!" screamed Maka. Stein's arm snaked out and dragged Spirit to his feet.

They flew into the front room of the inn. Maka slammed the door behind her at the same time the sound of the back door crashing open echoed through the building. Spirit was fumbling for the small safe they tucked away behind the bar while Stein was looking out the front windows. There was shouting and stomping from the back room.

"Dad, we need to _go_."

"Spirit, quickly," said Stein, striding towards him.

"I can't find it," Spirit moaned as Stein grabbed his shoulders and dragged him towards the door.

Maka cracked it open. "We're clear!" she said. They threw the door open and ran hunched over towards the stable. It wasn't far from the entrance, but it felt like a million light-years away as they dashed through the dark.

Stein slid open the heavy door and his steed Delilah snorted with delight at the sight of him. "Shh, quiet!" he admonished her. Spirit was watching out the door, eyes trained on Chupacabra's. Maka joined him. She could see an orange glow flickering in the windows.

A shot rang out. Delilah spooked, screaming and rearing up on her hind two legs.

"Stein!" cried Maka.

"Easy girl, easy!" Stein was struggling to grab the reins. Maka leapt aside, trying to avoid Delilah's clawed feet.

"No!" yelled Spirit, still watching the inn.

Stein managed to grab the rope. "Now!" He swung his body up and over Delilah. Reaching down, he met Maka's hand as she clutched at him. Her stomach swooped slightly as she was lifted off her feet and hit Deliliah's scaly back with a thud. "Spirit!" As Delilah began to gallop towards the open door, both Maka and Stein leaned over just as her father turned and leapt towards them. He hit Delilah's back behind Maka, and for a brief terrifying moment, it felt as if he were slipping of her grasp, but he managed to heave himself up and on.

"No, no, no," he groaned as he turned back to look at the inn.

Maka whipped her head around to watch the home she had grown up in grow smaller and smaller. The entire structure was glowing orange, billowing smoke curling into the sky and blotting out the stars. Chupacabra's was burning.

* * *

Somehow that night Maka made her way into Stein's small, messy apartment above his lab and collapsed onto the sofa. It smelled musty and a little like iron, but in her exhaustion, none of that mattered, and she fell into a dreamless sleep. She woke in the middle of the night to hear her father's dry sobs fill the room and Stein's answering low murmurs, but before she could do anything, she sunk beneath the darkness again and slept again until morning.

Every part of her body felt leaden. The weak morning sunlight streaming in through the window hurt her eyes, but her arms were too heavy to lift to block it out. She buried her face in the lumpy pillow, but the sun's insistent pull and the droning of voices from downstairs finally roused her. Lifting herself onto her arms, Maka blinked the sleep from her eyes. As she got her bearings, something glinted on the floor in the sunlight and caught her attention.

It was the box the alien woman had given her last night. Somehow she had managed to hold onto it during their entire flight from the ruined Chupacabra's. Upon closer inspection, she could see that it was a smooth metal cube with various small buttons across its surfaces. Blinking back the sand from her eyes, Maka lifted it to her face.

Pressing the buttons in a random order made a red light from within the box glow, then grow dim. She tried a few different patterns, but they all resulted in a quick red flash. She shoved the box under her pillow and lifted herself off the couch.

She descended the steps to find Stein and Spirit sitting in the lab. Maka suspected that once upon a time, the lab and the kitchen were separate entities, but at this point, they were one and the same. Stein was brewing Galatean coffee over a small open flame, drumming his fingers on the counter. Spirit sat in a stool, head buried in his hands.

Stein glanced up as Maka approached. "You can of course stay as long as you need," he said, as much for her benefit as for her father's, "that's no concern at all. I have enough research money left from my previous expedition to the exoplanet Pwort-O Reek-O and I'm happy to feed you for now. I… do not have enough to help finance any sort of rebuilding, however."

"Gone," groaned Spirit. "All gone."

"Yes. I can speak to the local policebots to see if there is any possibility of pursuing the people who burned down your inn, but I strongly suspect there will not be a lot to go on. They seemed to approach from the docks, so it seems likely they arrived via ship. I'm sure they departed as soon as they looted the place."

"Who was that woman?" asked Spirit, lifting his head to look at his daughter. There was a large red mark on his forehead from where his hands had been clutching at it.

"I don't know," Maka said, shifting her weight from foot to foot, struggling to maintain a perfect poker face. "She was in a small ship that landed on the end of the dock in the middle of the night. I didn't get a chance to ask her for her registration, or where she was coming from, or where she meant to go, or anything. She was hurt and I helped her. And her ship… her ship fell."

"So that'll be a dead end," said Stein. "With no way to retrieve it, we have no way of garnering any clues. And you know those policebots-"

"Too well," growled Spirit. Maka looked away.

"-they won't bother investigating without solid evidence in front of them. We may be at a bit of a loss on that front. I'm not really sure what could happen."

"What am I going to do?" asked Spirit in a whisper.

"You're going to eat breakfast," said Stein, setting a plate in front of him. Maka slid onto a stool next to him, careful to not let their knees touch, and Stein handed her one as well. "That's a good start."

Stein poured both Maka and Spirit a cup of coffee from his burner and slid some eggs onto their plates. The yolks were a pale green, which suggested they were the eggs of the Snarlak lizard. They cycled in and out of being legal to purchase, and on another day Maka might have raised an eyebrow and made a comment about that fact, but this morning she was starving, and wolfed down her breakfast.

The next few days bled into one another. Policebots cycled in and out of the front room, their droning robotic voices creating a cacophony of condescension. Maka lurked upstairs whenever they came by, not having any desire to spend any more time in their presence as necessary. Like Stein had predicted, they hadn't had much success in investigating the ruined inn, and Maka didn't want to answer any questions about the dead spider woman. There was something about the look in that pale face as the woman lay dying that haunted her.

Her father insisted that they earn their keep by cleaning Stein's laboratory. The task kept them incredibly busy, because the place was disgusting. Stein clearly did not prioritize cleanliness at any time in any manner. Her days were spent scrubbing blood stains of almost every visible color on the spectrum (and even some off the spectrum) out of the floors and the walls, were spent scraping dried out fluids from beakers and burners, were spent organizing and tidying and dusting and washing and folding and hanging.

The only saving grace of the project was the fact that Stein had collected so many books. Many of them were written in languages she didn't understand, but she still found plenty she could read. Running a hand across the leather bound covers, she traced the gilded letters with her fingertips, reverently memorizing their titles, until she gave in to temptation and flipped open the book and started reading. She whittled away the hours poring over the tomes, their musty pages imparting their knowledge as the sun crept across the carpet below her. If her father caught her, he would chide her for wasting time. If Stein caught her, he'd mention mildly which book she should place it next to when she put it away, which often lead her to the next book.

Her father collapsed onto the bed in Stein's room every night, exhausted and weary, the lines around his eyes growing deeper with every passing day. Stein kept strange hours, and seemed to sleep in the chair attached to his telescope more often than anything else. Maka took the couch that she had the first night they had escaped, gazing up through the skylight into the night sky, and when sleep did not come to her right away, she fiddled with the box.

Some of the small buttons on the cube were a little smoother than the others, ever so slightly more worn, rubbed down from years of oils and scales and skin touching it, so Maka had been able to narrow down the possible choices. Still, there were plenty of possibilities left, and Maka tried over and over and over, the little red light flaring from inside the cube a sign of her repeated failures.

That red light had become so much a part of her nightly ritual, the afterimages burned into her vision as she closed her eyes, that one night when the box glowed a pale green, it took Maka a moment to process what she'd seen. She blinked, but then the cube unfolded in her hands with a whoosh, and she startled so badly that she slipped off the couch onto the floor. From the center of the box erupted a thin stream of lights, curling into the air like Thymonian fire wasps during mating season. They met in the middle of the room, then shattered into a thousand pinpricks of light.

Maka clutched the box to her chest in surprise. It had opened like a flower in bloom, and in the center was a small orb powering the lights. The lights began to swirl together, forming like tiny galaxies - and then Maka realized that they were forming the stars. She stood slowly, watching miniature suns and moons and planets take shape, expanding to fill the room.

"Good lord!" cried a voice. Stein had apparently raced up the stairs. He was wearing only his socks and pajamas, one hand on the railing to steady himself, but his face was filled with wonder, the tiny lights reflected on his glasses.

"What's going on?" Spirit had flown from the bedroom looking harried and half awake, hair askew.

"In all my life," Stein said, approaching Maka and shaking his head, "I have never seen such technology."

"Look," Maka whispered. "It's Neh Vah D-A Prime." She pointed at the small planet, dwarfed by the Kaly Fornya space port next to it. Just as her finger drew close, the planets all burst into movement. "Whoa!"

The lights began to move away from Neh Vah D-A Prime. As the stars hit the edge of the projection, they shattered into tiny pinpricks and scattered, reforming new planets on the other edge of the map.

"There's Y-Ohmin," said Stein, pointing at a planet as it rushed by. "And there's R-Can Saw. Goodness, it even has Burmyudah Omega. I can't believe-"

The planets sped by, birthing and dying in the space of moments across the darkened room. Maka watched, heart in her throat.

Finally they began to slow. The three people in the room turned to face the largest object made of light, hanging in the room like a tiny sun. "It can't be," said Stein, adjusting his glasses.

"Treasure Planet," breathed Maka.

"What?" asked Spirit.

"Papa, don't you remember? We used to read stories about it all the time." Maka reached forward and her fingertips just barely touched the light particles maintaining the image of the planet surrounded by two distinct rings. It glittered like gold in front of her. The cube was warm in her hand.

Stein's eyes found the box at that moment. "Could it be-?"

Spirit still looked nonplussed, so Stein turned to him. "The story goes that the two legendary pirates, Eibon and Asura, traveled the galaxies and looted thousands of ships and ports, collecting treasure beyond imagination, beyond comprehension. They were the most effective and most feared pirates to traverse the universe. Eibon was clever and skilled while Asura was cruel and ruthless; together they made an unstoppable force."

"Oh, maybe this does sound a bit familiar," said Spirit, glancing at Maka. "This was in one of your picture books? From when you were a child?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," said Stein, now approaching the glowing planet as well. "It's a story that has long since been reduced to a fairy tale. But there is good evidence that Eibon and Asura were indeed historical figures. It's estimated that they lived eight hundred years ago."

Maka remembered the story well, but apparently her father didn't.

"So what happened?" asked Spirit. "Where does this planet come in?"

"As it's told, Eibon began to grow worried about Asura's cruelty. There is also some belief that Eibon might have fallen ill. So the legend goes, faced with his own mortality and the realization that Asura would retain everything that they had earned together, Eibon was determined to win against his partner in the last way that he could. He took the entirety of their vast wealth and hid it on a planet far, far into the darkness of space. He created Brew, the map to that treasure, but made it so that only someone as clever as he could crack the code. Asura, discovering his treachery, scoured the galaxies in an attempt to find the planet, but to no avail. He died, penniless and enraged in ignominy, while Eibon died surrounded by his treasure on a planet that has been lost for eight hundred years."

"Until now."

Spirit and Stein both turned to her, but Maka refused to quail under their surprised looks. "This must be Brew, and I know how to open it. We can use this and find the treasure and that will solve all our problems! We could rebuild Chupacabra's a hundred times over, we could actually attract respectable customers-"

"How, Maka?" Spirit asked quietly. "How could we possibly get there?"

"We charter a ship, of course," said Stein. Father and daughter turned to look at him. He looked mild and matter-of-fact. "I have enough money to do that. We hire a crew, we stock up, and we head out into space. Maka will of course hold on to Brew and utilize it whenever we need it. I will accompany her and catalogue any discoveries we make along the way."

"But-"

"You'll have to stay here just in case the policebots discover anything about the break in, and to make sure you continue to pay the lease on my lab here, and we will likely be back before you know it!"

"Likely?" he asked weakly.

"I can do it, Papa," she said.

Their eyes met and even through the gloom, Maka recognized them in their similarity to the eyes she saw every morning in the mirror. There was a plea in them, and something almost like pride.

"Please, Papa." She tried to imbue the word with all the connotations she meant for it: her eagerness, her determination, her guilt, her desire to prove herself. Spirit heaved a sigh and nodded, almost imperceptibly, but a grin cracked across Maka's face.

"Excellent," said Stein brusquely. "We have a lot to prepare in a short amount of time, so we'll need to get started first thing tomorrow morning…" He began to prattle off a variety of things they would need for the expedition, walking in circles and paying no attention to his guests. Spirit's hand twitched as if he wanted to reach out to his daughter, but Maka tensed and stepped a little farther away, and he made no further move.


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to Kaly Fornya was uneventful, though bizarre. One passenger, a small alien with a long white protuberance of a nose, insisted on chatting with Maka the entire time in the cramped quarters of the shuttle ship. He tried to tell her about what he planned to do at Kaly Fornya, about his adventures, about his 'legend', and Maka found herself more happy than she'd ever been to disembark at the port.

Kaly Fornya was a bustling, frenetic place, so different than her home on Neh Vah D-A Prime. Where the lonely hills whistled with wind and long grasses grew, on Kaly Fornya everything was made of metal. The entire port was a constructed piece of technology. The people on Neh Vah D-A Prime had been its inventor, but the child had long since outgrown the parent, and the mass migration to the port itself left Neh Vah D-A Prime desolate and sparsely populated. The mass of aliens, all walking purposefully towards their various destinations, brightly colored and fashionably adorned, made Maka in her simple brown shirt and pants feel incredibly out of place. The overwhelming sights and sounds were beginning to give her a headache.

Stein, on the other hand, seemed in rare form. He was smiling jovially, hands behind his back as they approached the docks. Despite being buffeted on either side from oddly smelling aliens, his spirits were high as they strolled along. "We need to find the ship _Shibusen_ ," he told her as an alien with hooves stepped hard on his foot. "I haven't spoken with the captain yet, but I am told Captain Mjolnir is very capable."

"I hope he is," Maka muttered, dodging a spine of a passerby. "Because didn't you get the cheapest crew you could find?"

"I did indeed," said Stein cheerfully. "Ahh-!"

The ship loomed in front of them. The hull was black and covered with barnacles. The masts rose high above them, white sails curled around them like clouds trapped by the posts. Her heart began to pound in her chest as Maka squeezed the shoulder strap of her pack. This was _happening_.

"Move!" came a shout. Someone shouldered into her as she stood on the gangplank, looking up in awe of the ship. She stumbled forward, turning to glare at the person who shoved her. He was another alien, though at first it was hard to tell. His auburn hair was spiky and his shape was mostly human, but his teeth were far too sharp to be _Homo sapien_ and his skin was just a shade too gray. He sneered at her as he passed. "What're you looking at, bitch?"

Maka's lips curled into a snarl, but before she could reply, Stein had a firm grip on her shoulder. "I see we've met one of our crew members already!" he said with a cheerful note in his voice, but Maka could see the hard edge around his eyes. "We'll have to be sure his paycheck doesn't suffer as a result of his clumsiness."

The man clenched an overlarge hand within his long gloves. Maka suspected that if he were to remove them, it would prove his alien origin even more. But with a snort, he turned his back on them again and moved up towards the ship.

"Well, we'll have to be keeping an eye on him, then." Stein turned to Maka, and his face was jovial once more. "Shall we?"

As Maka lifted her heavy boot to step onto the ship, something squirmed in her stomach. It felt like a threshold, one she could not step back over, but she let her foot fall hard onto the deck. An itch ran down her spine.

"Welcome aboard," boomed a voice. Maka and Stein turned to see a large man approaching them. His hair and beard were neatly trimmed, and he wore a long blue coat with well-polished brass buttons. As he drew nearer, Maka noticed his gait had a slight limp to it, but despite that, his spine was ramrod straight.

"Captain Mjolnir, I presume?" asked Stein, extending a hand. "Everything appears to be in good order."

"Good order indeed, but I am not the captain. She's waiting for us in her cabin." He swept a careful eye over Maka. "I am assuming this is the young woman with the, ah… _object_ of interest?"

Her jacket pocket felt particularly heavy. "Yes," she said, standing a little taller.

He eyed her, but his face remained impassive until he turned his back. "Well, let us greet the captain."

Stein and Maka followed the large man across the deck of the ship, taking care to keep close enough on his heels not to get run over by any of the crew rushing back and forth to prepare for the launch. Many of them were wearing long black cloaks and white masks, but there were also some who were not, and these seemed to be the ones with higher rankings. In any case, they seemed to be giving orders to the others.

There was something a bit unsettling about them, but Maka kept her head held high as she stepped through the doorway that led to the captain's quarters. Inside, the room was brightly lit, with a long wooden table covered in papers and a few scattered chairs. A lithe woman stood poring over them, but as they approached, she turned to look at them.

"Ah, Joe, thank you for bringing the good doctor directly to me." She straightened and proffered a hand, which Stein shook, while Maka examined her.

The most noticeable thing about her was the eyepatch covering one of her eyes, stretched across her long golden hair which was tied into a single plait down her back. Her jacket was black and tailed, with shiny yellow buttons that matched her pantaloons. White boots completed the look that overall created a very bright effect. Nevertheless, she managed to command authority as she gazed from Stein to Maka.

"Well, I must say I'm impressed," she said finally.

"Impress-?"

"Doctor, you managed to find the most unsavory crew I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and that is saying something. I have never met a larger bunch of louts in my life."

"I beg your-"

She sat down, fingertips delicately spread across the table, covered in thick white gloves. "Regardless, they will have to do. You, as the financier of this expedition, have the right to select whomever you like as a crew, and I just have to go along with it. But rest assured," and here she punctuated her words with a stern gaze from her one visible eye, "any damages incurred while they are on my ship will be reimbursed to me in full."

"I really-"

"May I see the map," she interrupted, turning to Maka. It wasn't a question.

Maka frowned, a little unsure. She flicked her eyes to Stein, but he looked back at her mildly, so she reached into her pocket and pulled out the small cube. With a little more force than necessary, she placed it onto the table.

The captain's eye trained on the box as she leaned forward. Her hands wrapped around it and she brought it closer to inspect it. Her first mate Joe leaned forward covetously.

"So this is Brew?" she asked, her voice ever so slightly choked.

"Yes," said Maka, watching Captain Mjolnir's face carefully.

"Extraordinary." The captain pressed one of the buttons, and Joe leaned forward even more expectantly. For a moment, Maka thought Captain Mjolnir might try to solve the puzzle herself - her gloved fingers were hovering over the buttons - but then she stood so abruptly that Maka startled. "Well. It is a magnificent device. As much as I might like to examine it further, it seems prudent to hide it properly while we are onboard a ship with as many miscreants as we are."

"I do say-"

"Miss Albarn, I'll leave it here, locked up safely," said Captain Mjolnir, striding to a cabinet and producing a key from her pocket.

"Wait, no-!"

The captain turned to her, braid whirling. Her visible eyebrow was raised, but she did not appear to be angry. "Miss Albarn, you must address me as Captain when you speak to me."

Maka pursed her lips.

"I understand that you are attached to the device, and I do recognize that you are the only one who can solve it. I advise that you keep it that way. However, I must strenuously insist that we lock it away unless it is in use. It is best to keep it safe, and I assure you, there is no safer place than here in my cabin."

Biting her lip, Maka tried to think. The idea of leaving Brew with the captain was not exactly something that thrilled her, but on the other hand, she was not sure if beginning the long trip into space by disobeying the captain's direct orders was one she liked either. She clenched her fist in her pocket, but nodded once.

"Wonderful," said the captain, all business again. "And while we're on the subject of _you_ , we need to discuss your role here on the ship."

"My role?"

Captain Mjolnir smiled. "Indeed. We can't have you lazing about as we travel. I believe you will make an excellent cabin girl. I will set you up with the cook, Medusa."

"The cook?"

"Am I to understand that you helped your father run an inn back on Neh Vah D-A Prime?"

With a tightly clenched jaw, Maka nodded.

"Then you are perfectly suited for the work. Let us go and make introductions, I need to get this brig into the air."

With that, she turned towards the door, the tails of her coat sweeping behind her. Maka followed, trying to make her boots stomp as hard as they could against the wooden deck.

The crew was just as busy when they reemerged from the cabin, but Captain Mjolnir paid them no mind as she strode confidently across the deck. Joe followed, shoulders squared as he went, and Stein trailed behind them, looking around with mild amusement.

The captain descended the steps into the galley, disappearing from sight with each smart rap of her boots against the steps. Maka dragged her feet, following much more slowly.

"Medusa! How are we doing in here?" Captain Mjolnir asked brusquely.

The room was filled with steam, and it was hard for Maka to make out the person through the gloom. A shape began to form as the cook moved forward. For a moment, Maka thought the form was that of the strange spider woman who had crashed onto the dock, but Medusa slid into focus and the resemblance was less so in the better light. She also appeared almost human, but her smile revealed a forked tongue.

"I'm settling in just fine, Captain, how kind of you to ask." She swept her arms wide to indicate the small galley, and Maka noticed that one was a cybernetic attachment. The other ended with long black nails. "I'm just freshening up the space and will begin on supper shortly."

"Excellent. I think I have something that will make that easier for you." Captain Mjolnir turned to Maka and motioned with her head to step forward. Maka obliged with a shuffling gait. "This is Maka Albarn. She will be your cabin girl and assist you here in the galley. She will report to you and therefore be your responsibility."

Medusa brought her metallic hand to her chin as if contemplating the young woman she saw before her. The arm, Maka noticed with a slight jolt, was not comprised of tubes as she'd thought, but of gently writhing metal snakes.

"She's such a thin little thing," said Medusa. "Can she really be much good to me?"

"That is up to you to make her so." The captain gave Maka a final glance, then nodded to her first mate. "We'll leave you to get acquainted. Come, Joe, we have a ship to launch. Doctor, we really must discuss the state of your clothes, you're positively shabby-"

Her voice receded as she went up the stairs, trailed loyally by Joe and Stein. Maka watched their retreating backs, then turned back to Medusa.

The cook was eyeing her thoughtfully, tapping the tiny snake heads against her chin. It might have been comical if it hadn't been so unsettling. Maka swallowed, and saw Medusa's eyes snap to her neck, following the motion.

But then Medusa smiled, and her features slid into a warm countenance. "Well, you may be little, but I'm sure you can achieve great things here." She walked towards Maka, still looking her up and down. "You look a little underfed, so we'll to fatten you up, but that's not hard with my cooking. You'll be mostly on dish duty, but perhaps we can teach you to cook so you're not so skinny."

"I know how to cook," said Maka mulishly.

"It doesn't look like it," Medusa chortled, but she didn't sound malicious.

There was a chirping sound from behind Medusa's head. A small pink shape suddenly appeared, flying into Maka's face and squishing against her nose. She jumped back; it had been oddly cool to the touch. The chirping grew more excited as Medusa laughed.

"That's my morphling, Crona. Got them at Exoplanet Eee Tal-Eee. They're a loyal species, and very useful. See for yourself."

The pink creature smiled up at her, then changed into a perfect small scale replica of her. With a cry of delight, Maka cupped her hands to hold the small model of herself. Her tiny counterpart chirped happily like a songbird, looking ready to alight. With a shiver and a shake, the morphling transformed into a small version of Medusa and flew back to her shoulder. The cook lifted one of her organic fingers and scratched at Crona absentmindedly.

"They're sweet," said Maka.

"Mmm." Medusa cocked her head as she gazed down at Maka. A smile split her face, and even with the forked tongue, it was warm and inviting. "Oh, go on then."

"What?"

"Go watch the launch. I'll put you to work after that."

Maka stared at the cook for a moment, hands jammed deep within her pockets. Slowly, she withdrew them, a grin spreading across her face to mirror Medusa's. "Really?"

Medusa was already turning back towards the stove and disappearing into the steam again. "Enjoy yourself. While you can."

* * *

Captain Mjolnir was standing at the helm, hands clasped behind her back. Joe stood beside her, booming orders and pointing at crew members who weren't working fast enough. Avoiding running into anyone, Maka made her way to the starboard railing of the ship. The engines were revving beneath her feet, growling like a beast woken from a deep slumber. She gripped the wood of the railing and breathed in the fresh air.

"Hoist the anchor!" came Joe's loud voice.

A creaking rumble came from below the ship.

"Drop the sails!"

The large white cloths unfurled and were impregnated by the impatient wind.

"Prepare the engines!"

The revving grew louder and louder.

Captain Mjolnir's voice carried across the ship, not as loud as Joe's but somehow with more authority.

"Set sail!" she cried.

A roar unlike any other broke the air, and the ship rushed forward, curving gently into the sky. Maka gripped the edge of the ship as tightly as she could, wind whipping through her two pigtails. She felt her feet begin to leave the deck of the ship and she clutched the guardrail more tightly.

"Activate artificial gravity!"

The deck glowed a pale yellow and Maka's feet met the ground again.

The stars rushed by, the sky a swirl of greens and purples and blues. Clouds of tiny ice particles formed on the port horizon, shaped like rolling waves across the wide expanse of space. The constellations blurred as they zoomed towards her, and it reminded Maka of Brew's map, but the real thing was a thousand times more brilliant.

She could feel the blood rush to her cheeks and her heart beat in her chest. She felt alive, more alive than she had in years. There was an exhilaration pumping through her veins like a drug, and she knew why all the legends she read in Stein's book mentioned that the voyagers never wanted to return home.

A song wormed its way into her ears and she turned her head this way and that. A spurt of ice crystals suddenly went whooshing by the edge of the ship, and Maka leaned as far over the railing as she felt she could. Four large gray shapes were riding in the wake of the ship, crooning to each other even over the roar of the engines.

 _Sky whales_.

Maka watched them climb higher and higher next to the ship, skin shiny with the ice that formed in the edges of space. Their six fins undulated in a steady rhythm. Each had a unique song, and Maka tried to pick out the individual cries as they crested the edge of the ship.

The eye of the sky whale roved over the deck, capturing Maka in its gaze. It was surprisingly soft and expressive. With a final croon, the sky whales swooped away disappearing into the icy fog. Maka felt her heart expand.

"Miss Albarn!"

She turned to see Captain Mjolnir's stern face far too close to hers.

"Did you not hear me give you the order to help the cook in the galley?"

"I-"

"Please return to your station immediately."

Maka scowled at her, but obeyed.


	3. Chapter 3

Medusa, true to her word, kept her very busy. After serving supper to the entire crew, who were starving after the hard work of launching the ship, Maka was told to clean all the dishes from the meal.

"And you need to finish all of them," Medusa had said, pointing at six different pots with six different snakes. "I'll need these clean for breakfast."

Maka's world became a whirlwind of scrubbing and scouring and washing and drying. Medusa clearly had no qualms about using as many pots and pans as needed now that she wasn't the one in charge of keeping them clean. In between breakfast and supper (Medusa never bothered with a real midday meal - crew members would come to the galley when they were hungry and she fed them fruits and salted meats), Maka had to chop all the ingredients for that night's meal. Before the crew sat down to dinner, Maka took a small tray to Captain Mjolnir's private chamber to bring food to her, her first mate, and Stein, who seemed to delight in asking Maka to "give his compliments to the cabin girl for her excellent presentation." Maka, who had spent most of her life feeding the man, did not find as much amusement in the charade.

For the most part, the other crew members ignored her. The unpleasant alien from the first day scowled at her whenever they made eye contact, but he didn't approach her. Captain Mjolnir had been right: the crew was a little rough around the edges. Maka often saw them engaged in less than legal card games whenever she passed, mopping the deck, and they shuffled so that their backs were to her to prevent her prying eyes from seeing anything.

They were all a wide variety of alien, many of which Maka had never encountered before. If they had been friendlier, Maka might have asked curious questions (politely, of course), but they did not invite scientific inquiry.

Of all of them, Medusa took the most interest in her. She seemed impressed when Maka would talk about a book she had read, and after about a week, opened one of the cabinets in the small cramped galley to reveal a little stash of books.

" _If_ you are done with all your work for the day," Medusa said, metallic snakes hissing slightly as she wagged a finger at Maka, "you may come here and borrow a book. I've been cultivating this little collection across many ships through many star systems. I would be very angry if anything were to happen to any of them."

"I'll be careful," said Maka eagerly, wrapping her hands around one lovingly. Medusa nodded in approval.

Crona had taken to sometimes joining her in her small bunk bed. They would curl into her side, snuggling under the thin, ragged blanket. Their skin was cool to the touch, apparently a characteristic of morphlings (one of Medusa's books was a book on the rearing of morphlings) and at first it made Maka feel as if she were sleeping with a corpse, but she soon got used to it. Medusa found it highly amusing that Crona had taken such a shining to her.

"Morphlings tend to imprint on only one handler; it's very uncommon that they decide to trust anyone else." She smiled, her tongue flicking briefly between her lips. "You must really be something."

* * *

"Maka, this must be your recipe," said Stein, fork hovering near his mouth.

She turned to him in slight surprise. "How did you know?"

"I'd recognize it anywhere; did Medusa let you actually cook a meal?"

Captain Mjolnir folded her hands and rested her elbows on the table. She gazed at Maka with her one good eye, waiting patiently.

Maka felt herself color under the scrutiny. "Just for the private chambers. Medusa always makes this meal separately and the crew's supper was taking longer than usual this evening-"

"It's quite tasty," said Captain Mjolnir, cutting across her. "I see I made the right decision in assigning you to the galley."

Maka hesitated. She wanted very badly to say she would have _far_ preferred working anywhere above deck - working in the open air, watching the many suns rise and set beyond the sides of the ship, that would have been her dream - but she knew it wasn't worth bringing up; indeed, it could get her in a lot of trouble.

Stein turned to the captain, looking mildly amused. "Might I ask that Maka be excused from her duties tonight?"

Her brow rose. "For what purpose?"

"I would like her to accompany me on a walk around the deck this evening. I'd like to discuss some of my research with her. She's always been such a good sounding board for me every time I visited her father's inn."

That was a lie; Maka had never been asked to consult on any of his research - she wasn't even sure if she knew what _kind_ of research he really did - but she felt surge of affection for Stein and his attempt to give her a break.

Captain Mjolnir leaned forward to gaze into Stein's slightly-lined face. After a moment, she smiled. "Yes, that sounds acceptable. She will need to finish her chores with our cook first, but so long as there is no work left undone, I see no reason she should not help you out." There was something in the way she said the last line that Maka wondered briefly if the captain knew very well that Stein had never asked Maka to do help out before, but the captain was already tucking back into her meal, expression indiscernible.

The conversation turned to other topics, and Maka cleared their plates with particular care, eager to prove to Captain Mjolnir that she had earned the walk with Stein. She washed the dishes quickly that evening, and while there was still a little bit of something burned onto the bottom of the large pot, Medusa waved her off, saying she was sure it would cook off the next day and if not, it would flavor the next meal.

Stein was waiting for her on the deck of the ship, gazing into the sky as she joined him. Maka shivered slightly under her coat; it was cold out. Maka knew it was evening from the holographic clock that hung in the galley, and it was actually dark at the same time. The ship traveled in and out of the light of many stars during the course of a single day, and it could be very disorienting. But tonight it was actually consistent with what time the clock said.

"Thank you for joining me, Maka," said Stein, turning to look at her.

"Thank you for giving me an excuse," she murmured, and he chuckled.

"Well, it seemed like as good a chance as any. Captain Mjolnir is quite the hard ass, isn't she?" His voice was filled with more admiration than his words belied, and Maka quirked an eyebrow at him. He looked out into space. "Let's walk."

They fell into step as they began to stroll along the edge of the ship. The sky was alive with the twinkling of distant stars and gas clouds.

"How are you enjoying your time on the ship?" asked Stein conversationally.

"I guess it's all right." Maka scuffed a boot against the deck she had previously cleaned herself. "I mean, I'm working as a cabin girl, which is annoying, but-"

"We all have to start somewhere," Stein interrupted.

Maka grunted, but after a moment, she continued. "I guess I like working with my hands. I don't know. Medusa seems all right. For a cook."

"Your father's a cook."

"My father's a philanderer," she said scathingly.

"And what does that have to do with anything?"

Maka stopped walking. Stein's hands were clasped behind his back as he kept walking a few paces before turning to look at her gently. Maka turned away, unwilling to meet his gaze. Instead, she examined the whorls on the wood railing next to her, patterns like ocean waves.

"Your father loves you very much," he said simply.

"But my mother-"

"Left of her own accord."

A vein twitched in her jaw.

"He drove her away."

"Perhaps. And you can be angry if you'd like. But don't let yourself be too angry that you can't appreciate this." With that, he spread his arms wide, encompassing all of the wide open sky.

"I am!" she protested.

Stein dropped his arms to look at her more closely. "I hope so. Because keep in mind, neither your mother or your father is on this ship right now." He stepped toward her and tapped her twice on the collar bone. "But you are."

* * *

Maka didn't fully understand what Stein meant, but she did feel a shifting in her after that. Something felt looser, as if a dam had broken, and there was a certain lightness to her step that hadn't been there in a long time. Her shoulders straightened more readily, and she threw herself into the work Medusa assigned her.

The cook seemed to notice Maka's new dedication and was pleased. Maka noticed her portions at meal times grew larger and Medusa began tossing her the good pieces before she threw everything into the pot for the crew at large.

Medusa would also slip small pieces of advice into their conversations about the chores. Even though she was discussing the drudgery of scrubbing the floors or the tediousness of washing dishes, something sage with slither out between the words, and Maka began to pay close attention. Medusa wouldn't meet her eyes, just stroke Crona's head as she observed Maka's work, but a small smile would play around her lips as she watched.

One bright afternoon, Maka found herself sweating in a rowboat below the main hull. Her arms were sore and her neck felt hot, burned by the glowing star behind them. Medusa had her peeling barnacles off the side and tossing them into buckets at their feet; Maka was very concerned that they weren't just cleaning, but _harvesting_.

Medusa was whittling a small piece of wood in her hands as she reclined in the rowboat. Maka glanced over to see that she was using the head of one of the snakes that made up her arm: it had produced a small blade from between its fangs, and Medusa was deftly carving away. The cabin girl found her eyes drawn to the appendage over and over, and because Medusa's face was lazy and relaxed, she found her courage and asked, "How did you get that?"

Her eyes flashed as she focused on Maka. They were calculating, but there was no real malice in them. Medusa shifted to sit up straighter, tilting her head to examine the girl.

"Sorry," Maka muttered, turning back to a particularly stubborn barnacle. "Forget I asked."

"When you have a… a dream. A goal. A purpose," and Medusa's eyes glittered again, "you come to the realization that you will give up… almost anything in the pursuit of it."

Crona chirped suddenly from her shoulder, and she began to stroke their chest absentmindedly.

"When you find yourself between a rock and a hard place - and in some cases, this can mean literally - you make a choice." The snakes began to hiss lightly. "You give up part of yourself for the dream. For the pursuit."

Maka was staring, mouth slightly agape. "So you had to-?"

"Tell me about your wings." Maka must have looked taken aback, because Medusa continued, "I overheard Dr. Stein telling Mr. Buttataki about your, shall we say, misadventures with the law. You constructed wings and flew them in a restricted section of Neh Vah D-A Prime."

"Yeah."

"Multiple times."

Turning back to the ship, Maka jammed the crowbar under the belly of another barnacle. "Yeah, well. There's not much else to do there."

"I've never been, so I can't really speak to the veracity of that," Medusa said lightly. "But I am impressed that you were able to create such things. I have heard of people using automaton tech in such a way, but I have never seen it." She lifted her hand to gaze into the small faces of her snakes. "We have been together for a long time. We're a little out of date."

Maka wrenched the creature off the wood and tossed it over her shoulder. She missed the bucket, but Crona flew down and grabbed the barnacle in their mouth and plopped it down where it belonged. Shooting the creature a smile, Maka moved on to the next. "Yeah, it's pretty advanced tech," she said through gritted teeth. "It drives four needles through the skin and into the spinal column to connect to the nervous system. The needles are chitinous and biodegradable, so if you fall and the wings get ripped away, they don't linger. People have been experimenting with non-permanent automaton tech for a while now, so that you don't have to… well…"

"Make any permanent changes," Medusa finished for her. "Yes, that makes sense."

"Yeah."

They were silent for a few minutes save for Maka's small grunts of effort as she peeled the barnacles away. Medusa seemed to be lost in thought.

"Crona, be careful," Maka said, watching the small morphling flit around her hands. "I don't want to hit you."

"I am fairly certain," came Medusa's voice, "that Eibon the Inventor was the creator of the original tech."

Maka froze. She swallowed, then resumed attacked the hull of the ship, trying to keep her voice steady. "Oh yeah?"

"Indeed. My sister was quite interested in his work growing up. She would often tell me facts about him, totally without me asking for them, and I think he created the prototypes for many of the tech pieces we use today." She flexed her snakes. "Including my friends here."

Turning, Maka's face was carefully neutral. "That's really interesting," she said.

"No, it's not," said Medusa with a grin. "My sister was always a bit of a nerd. Anyway, I think you're just about done here." She gestured at the rest of the boat. "These things take a lot of work to get off, as you've seen, and we need to get started on dinner. I think we have just about enough now anyway."

Maka blanched. "Do… do you mean-?"

Medusa threw her head back and laughed. "You don't have to eat them if you don't want to!"

* * *

Maka was tossing the scraps of food left over from the meal when Captain Mjolnir approached her.

"Maka, there is a task I require of you in my cabin. Who better to do it than the cabin girl?" Medusa must have appeared at the top of the stairs to the galley because Captain Mjolnir leaned around Maka to shout, "Thank you for lending me her! I'll return her in due time."

"I still have dishes to do-"

"Those can wait. This is an order from your captain."

Maka set the bucket down near the edge of the ship with a loud clang, but followed without further protest. As she stalked across the deck, she saw many members of the crew stare at her. Maka kept her head as high as possible.

Captain Mjolnir opened the door to her quarters and stepped aside to allow Maka in first. Maka walked in and the captain closed the door behind her with a snap.

"I believe we're close," she said without preamble.

"Close?"

"To Treasure Planet."

Maka felt a thrill run through her veins. "Are you sure?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

"Almost. I used the coordinates you gave me from the map to get us this far, but we need to see how close we are. In the eight hundred years since that map was made, some of the planets might have been knocked out of orbit, and we need to double check."

Her first mate and Stein were already in the cabin, standing by the window. Joe Buttataki stood straight as an arrow, eyes fixated on the captain, but Stein shot Maka a small smile.

Captain Mjolnir produced a small key from beneath her coat. She opened the cabinet and pulled out the small, unassuming cube. She held it out for Maka, who took it gently. It felt so strangely familiar, like a gentle handshake. For a moment, Maka let her fingers settle into the grooves of the map, feeling the sleeping energy below her fingertips.

"Do you remember-"

Maka rapidly pressed the buttons in the right order and the cube glowed green, and Mr. Buttataki licked his lips as he settled his mouth into a thin line. The shadow of a smile on her face, Maka turned to see the tiny lights shoot out of Brew to coagulate into large, slowly rotating planets.

"Excellent," breathed the captain. "This is where we are. Now we need to find the-"

"It's right here," said Stein, moving forward and pointing. Captain Mjolnir followed his finger eagerly, single eye wide. "We're not far at all, we've just veered a little to the left."

"Incredible." There was a catch in her voice that made Maka glance at the captain, but she was steeling her shoulders again and turning to her first mate. "Chart a course. Do not alert the crew just yet. It's dark and they've had their meal, let them sleep it off."

He gave her a stiff salute, then strode from the room.

Captain Mjolnir turned to Maka, and her face was unreadable in the gloom. When she spoke, her voice was gentle though. "Why don't you head to the bow," she said, putting a hand on Maka's shoulder, "and watch us approach. You are what got us here, and you should be the one to see us reach it."

Maka felt almost dizzy. She nodded vigorously, and Marie Mjolnir chuckled. "Go ahead, but try not to look too excited just yet. We'll tell the crew in the morning when we're ready to descend."

"Right."

"Go on now."

It took every ounce of self control she had to walk calmly across the deck. Maka saw Joe Buttataki out of the corner of her eye at the ship's helm, slowly steering the ship towards their destination. Maka moved right past the steps to the galley and stole into the shadows, sliding forward to the bow.

Her eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the dark. The ship passed between two cratered moons as she slowly regained her sight. This deep into space, everything felt wild and raw. There was a sense of smallness, of insignificance out here, but at the moment all Maka could feel was anticipation. She curled her hands around the railing and waited.

The minutes faded into each other. It began to get cold on the deck. Maka put her hands in the pockets of her jacket and was a little startled to discover the map in there. She hadn't meant to run off with it, but in her haste and excitement, she must have. Well, they were almost there; the map wouldn't be relevant anymore.

The prow of the ship pointed towards something looming ahead, and Maka looked up. Her breath caught in her throat.

A large planet grew slowly larger in front of the ship. Despite the darkness, Maka could clearly see the large double rings around it made of tiny particles of ice. The surface of the planet glowed a faint pale green, clouds swirling across the top of it. It looked exactly like the map had showed to her, exactly like the pictures in the books. It was surrounded in the distance by other planets, but there was something about this one, something about the giant 'x' formed over the center by the rings, something that drew her towards it. She would meet her destiny on that planet.

Without warning, an earth-shattering _boom_ hit her ears, and everything went dark.


	4. Chapter 4

The ship was burning.

Maka slowly came to with the smell of acrid smoke in her nose. Her ears didn't seem to be working; the only thing she could hear was a strange, tinny ringing. The wood beneath her cheek felt oddly hot, and Maka clenched her fist against it. She had to get up.

There were shouts around her, strange sounds of smacking and creaking and breaking, and the constant sound of a roaring fire. It crackled and spit like a living animal, flickering at the edges of her sight.

Maka struggled to her hands and knees, her dinner threatening to make a reappearance as the floor spun below her. She focused on a single knot in the wood, like an eye staring up at her, until the darkness faded from the edges of her vision and everything stopping spinning.

Her brain was screaming at her to figure out what she needed. Something, something… she needed to find Stein. She needed to find Medusa. She needed to find the captain. She needed to get somewhere safe. _She had the map_.

Lurching forward, Maka tried to head towards the main part of the ship, but the smoke was too thick. She concentrated on staying low and moving forward, hand first to feel ahead of her. If the floor felt too warm to the touch, she changed course and went another way.

Slowly, she felt as her soul was returning to her body, becoming more and more aware of things and everything sharpening into focus. The smoke seemed to clear some and she struggled to her feet. Her boot kicked against something, and she stooped to grab it. It was a standard issue laser gun. Maka wasn't sure how it got there, but she wasn't going to look a gift cyberhorse in the gyrating incisors, and pocketed it.

There were shouts and bangs, but the smoke was still too thick to see much of anything. Maka knew the ship well enough at this point to move blindly towards the captain's quarters. She opened her mouth to call out for someone, to ask what was going on, when she slipped on something and hit the deck hard. Her head fell into something sticky, and as she gathered her wits again despite the newly doubled pounding in her head, she felt it seep into her clothes. Lifting a hand, Maka suddenly felt the urge to vomit again: her hand was coated in a deep red blood. She scrambled up with a yelp, and located the source only a few feet from her. The body of the first mate, Joe Buttataki, decorated and thick as a tree, lay in a pool of his own blood, surrounded by his medals and his sashes but missing his head.

* * *

Maka descended the hill to face the pirate Medusa.

Her spine was straight and her hands were in both pockets of her jacket, each wrapped around a laser pistol. She heard the uneven footsteps of Stein and Marie behind her, clumping closer. She knew Marie was leaning heavily on the doctor and could hear the ragged breathing; her wound was obviously paining her.

Maka stopped ten paces from the woman with the snakes for an arm. Medusa's face was no longer the warm, benevolent one Maka had come to know, but a cruel, hard smiling visage. Crona peeked out from under her jacket, large eyes luminous and sad; they seemed to know it was tense.

"Pirate," spat Marie, who Maka wasn't sure could still be called 'captain' after having lost control of her vessel. "Disgusting, filthy pirate."

"You flatter me, Mjolnir," said Medusa silkily. "But there's no need for that."

"How dare you commandeer my ship?"

"I 'dared' because your entire crew was made up of my men. But make no mistake; I could have taken this ship by myself."

Marie spat a string of swear words out in her native tongue, but Medusa only laughed. The effort seemed to drain her, and she fell silent after that.

Medusa cocked her head as she studied the three people in front of her. Maka did nothing but glare back. The snakes of Medusa's arm coiled tightly into the shape of a hand and she used it to tap lightly on her face.

"I have no desire to kill you three-"

"Why not? You di'nt have no trouble killin' your own sister."

Medusa turned sharply to stare at the man with auburn hair. His mouth was curled into a sneer as he stared at her. "Silence, Giriko," Medusa said icily.

"That's true, madam. You certainly seemed to have no issue with that," a small man with a long nose said. She whirled on him as well, her face growing grotesque with rage. About half of the crew standing behind them shifted uncomfortably.

"Hope you ain't… getting soft on that girl," said the first.

Without warning, Medusa shot her hand out and dozens of tiny snake heads imbedded themselves into Giriko's shoulder and neck. He bellowed in pain as the snakes pulsed poison into him.

"I said not to kill any of the worthless people on this ship because we may need hostages later on. Bartering chips are never something to throw away like a Flautian snorvak, _and yet you deliberately beheaded the first mate_. We now have twenty-five percent fewer hostages than we started with, and you can believe that percentage will be deducted from your cut of the treasure. Do you understand me?" Her tongue darted out between her lips, the most snakelike Maka had ever seen her. Giriko only gave another scream of pain, and she threw him bodily from her. "Stop whining," she said as he stumbled backwards, groaning loudly. "That poison will not kill you, but it will make your next few shits _exceedingly_ painful. It will serve as a good reminder why you do not question me."

Maka tightened her hold on the guns within her pockets. Medusa seemed to notice the movement and turned back to her.

"Ah ah, I said I do not want to kill you, but I did not say I wouldn't. You are useful to me alive, but if you cause too much trouble, you will tip the scales out of your own favor. And we don't want that, do we?"

Stein spoke up at this point.

"There's not much more we can do for you. You have the ship-" Marie growled and jerked in his arms at the words "-and we are on the planet. There is nothing more that we have that you need."

"Ah, I beg to differ. You still have the map." She pointed a snake finger directly over Maka's heart.

"The map only lead to the planet," Maka said defiantly.

"I think you'll find that it does a bit more than that," said Medusa. "Why don't you open it up and see?"

She hesitated. Turning back to look at Stein and Marie, she searched their faces for an answer. Stein looked troubled as he gazed back at her, but Marie was still glaring daggers at the pirates.

There was the sound of a charging laser, and Maka turned around again to see the barrel of a gun between her eyes. "I have waited a very long time for this," breathed Medusa, who had stepped closer when Maka wasn't looking. "I do not want to wait much longer."

Maka stared into the older woman's slitted pupils. There was a hunger there, a raw desperation, and an anger bubbling just under the surface, but there was no glint of bloodlust; Medusa wanted the treasure, not Maka's life. If they played their cards right, perhaps they could make it out of this alive.

She pulled out the cube and quickly punched in the code. It opened with its usual flash of lights, but this time they formed into a single ball of energy. It streaked away from them, leaving a trail of light dust like a comet, and the pirates all exclaimed with wonder and excitement.

"Excellent," said Medusa almost reverently. "Now, lead the way, Maka, and we can settle this without any more bloodshed."

" _Lies!_ " screamed Marie. Everyone turned to her. "I see you, Medusa, I see your blackened heart-" She was clawing at her eyepatch and it came away to reveal a cybernetic eye, whirling and focusing independently of her organic one. It landed on each pirate in turn, but narrowed in on Medusa's heart. "I've sacrificed too much to get here, been burned by too many pirates before, I don't trust you for a _second_ -" Stein leaned his forehead against the side of her head and began to whisper in her ear. Maka couldn't make out what he was saying, but the captain fell silent at his words, though she was clearly still seething.

Maka turned back to Medusa. "Okay," she said quietly. "Okay."

"Perfect." She turned to her crew and snapped her fingers. "Eruka, Free, retrieve the ship and follow along behind us-"

With a _whoosh_ , the comet tail was sucked back into Brew. Medusa whipped her head to look back at Maka.

"Let the captain ride in the ship with them."

"Excuse me?"

"She's been injured badly. You said yourself you're down a hostage, and if you force her to walk who-knows-how-long to get to the treasure, you might be down another. Let her back onto the ship and rest."

Medusa raised an eyebrow, sizing her up.

"Send as many of your men back to the ship with her as you need," said Maka exasperatedly. "But she's injured, she's not a threat. Otherwise I don't go anywhere."

"Who're you to make demands, you little bi-!" Giriko shouted from behind her, but Medusa held up her snake hand and everyone fell silent.

"Very well." She turned again. "Mizune, you and your sisters will also accompany them back to the ship and keep an eye on her."

"I'd like to go too," said Stein. "I am a doctor of science, not medicine, but I certainly pose no threat to any-"

"Fine!" screamed Medusa, her voice become more inhuman. "Go! Before I poison every one of you!"

Five identical aliens walked forward to escort Stein and Marie back to the ship. As soon as Maka saw them disappear into the undergrowth, she opened the map again. Not wanting to incite Medusa's ire further, she allowed it to recreate the trail leading away from their current location.

"Okay, follow me."

* * *

The going was tough.

The planet had clearly not been inhabited by any sentient life form for hundreds of years, if not ever, and it was overgrown with tangles of weeds and vines. Large bulbous plants gave off noxious fumes as they passed, and in the shadows scurried creatures that remained just out of sight. The jungle was thick and the ground loamy, and the rich scent of decay was thick upon the air.

Maka followed the trailing dust from the ball of light, but it wasn't easy to keep herself from tripping over the tangled roots and look up at the same time. The pirates all made their way behind her, cursing and grumbling and shoving each other. Medusa followed silently, striding like a queen through her domain.

It was clear that some of the aliens were not adapted for the climate of Treasure Planet. Some of them seemed to need to stop for a rest every few feet, panting and clutching at the various parts of their anatomy that housed their hearts. Some were covered in fur, not meant for the thick jungle heat, and some were covered in a thin skin, unable to withstand the grasping vines and piercing thorns. Medusa showed them no mercy, and pressed on, shoving Maka between the shoulder blades every once in a while if she stumbled or went too slowly. Maka's human body was doing all right in the forest, all things considered, but Medusa was a woman on a mission, and it was difficult to keep up to her single-minded standards.

Crona had flown over to nestle themselves into the back of Maka's collar, curled around her like a scared pup. Their cool skin was a small comfort in the oppressive heat of the jungle, and Maka reached up every now and again to give them a small pat on the head.

Every so often, there would be a break in the trees long enough to see the ship hovering overhead. It couldn't steer too close, lest it catch its hull against the canopy, but it was clear that Eruka, the crew member Medusa had sent to get it, was skilled enough at maneuvering to keep close enough to follow without crashing. Maka looked up at the wooden underbelly every time it came into view and sent up a small prayer to the two people in the ship she cared about; she hoped that Stein had been allowed to tend to Marie's wound.

Hours into their march, one of the pirates collapsed. It was a small, sickly looking alien, and Maka could see its frantically beating heart through its skin, pounding against its distorted ribcage. The alien's eyes rolled up into their head, and the heart gave a few more desperate beats before becoming totally still. A sickly yellow foam began to gurgle forth from the alien's open mouth, and a rank smell hit the air. "Keep moving," barked Medusa, and the circle of pirates surrounding the body broke apart, and they were on the trail once more.

Finally, Maka noticed the light particles left behind by the map's guide were growing more frequent. She turned around to meet Medusa's gaze, and by the sharp determination she saw there, Maka knew she had seen it too.

"Almost," Medusa breathed, more to herself than anyone else, but Maka felt her heart speed up in her chest. They must be getting close.

After a few more minutes, the pirates seemed to notice it took, and they began to whisper among themselves, their rough voices growing louder with excitement. With a renewed vigor, they began to barrel through the trees with little thought to the brambles. The trail grew thicker and thicker.

Maka pushed her way between two tall stalks and stumbled forward into a blinding light. For a moment, she was confused, but her eyes adjusted and her surroundings came into view. They had reached an outcropping of rock devoid of jungle, and floating right above the edge was the ball of light that the map had released. It pulsed as if with its own heartbeat, and as Maka straightened, it shot towards her, seeping back into Brew and growing dark.

"What?" demanded Medusa. "What happened? What does that mean?"

Maka did the combination to open the map again, but nothing happened. "I-I don't know," she said.

Something hit her square in the back and she fell forward. Her cheek cracked against the stone and for a moment her head swam dangerously and her vision erupted with spots of life. Slowly she became aware of Medusa shouting at Giriko for kicking her and Giriko shouting back that this had all been a waste of time. The voices of the other pirates joined in the argument as Maka lifted herself up. She stared down at the stone that her cheek had struck and realized that it was smooth and oddly warm to the touch. Pulling a few roots away, she could see that it was carved with intricate symbols. Following them brought her to a small depression in the stone in a perfect square.

The shouting behind her was drowned about by the sound of the ship emerging overhead, but she ignored it. She gazed into the small dip and noticed the markings. She held up Brew, and she knew what she had to do.

Maka slammed the cube into the depression. The ground gave a low groan, like a beast woken from a long slumber, and the pirates fell into silence. Beams of light spread from the cube and flowed along the symbols carved into the stone. With another loud rumble from beneath their feet, a small opening appeared at the edge of the rockface and a holographic image like the one created by the map appeared.

"We found it," Maka said, voice cracking.

"How?" demanded Medusa, striding forward. "What does this mean?" She stopped in front of the holographic projection. It was a map of the stars, even more detailed and intricate than Brew's, but Medusa did not seem intrigued. Instead, she stood looming over it, hands outstretched like claws. "Where is the treasure?"

"It's where it's always been," said Maka, leaning around her to gently tap the light projection of Treasure Planet. With a roar, the air molecules in front of them split apart, and in the space between them was the gaping maw of a door to the center of the planet.


	5. Chapter 5

The pirates all rushed past her and Medusa, screaming and shouting with savage glee. They flung themselves forward and entered the chamber. Maka and Medusa followed.

It was a large, cavernous space; the ceiling was so high above their heads and shrouded in shadow that it was impossible to make out. The floor was also invisible, but that was because it was completely covered in treasure.

Gold. Coins upon coins upon coins of gold. It was a vast sea of shimmering yellow, undulated gently in dunes. Scattered among the pieces were glittering jewels, flashes of color against the tawny ocean. The pirates fell to their knees and began shoveling the treasure into their pockets. Medusa turned and waved the ship in through the wide doorway. It steered carefully into the room, which was large enough to house even a ship comfortably.

"Fill the ship!" shouted Medusa, but her crew seemed to ignore her. She snorted, but called up to the deck. "Fly towards the center of the room," she instructed. "Once people screw their heads on straight again, we'll begin to move what we can towards the ship."

A shout answered her, and the ship floated off.

Medusa sank to her knees as well and picked up a coin with the mouth of each snake. "Extraordinary," she breathed, turning each over. "Absolutely incredible."

Maka wandered off, drinking in the sight of all the loot buried beneath the surface of the planet. There were some coins she recognized, but thousands of others must have originated from worlds she had never seen. There were also solid gold statues scattered among the smaller pieces, and a few ancient pieces of tech that while their function was indiscernible, their value was apparent.

There was a small boat off in a corner of the room, and Maka made her way over to it. No one paid her any mind; they were all far too occupied with the vast amounts of wealth in front of them. Maka guessed, based on the way the gold coins were shifting below her feet, that the boat might have originally been in the center of the room where her ship now hovered, but over the millennia it had slid away to be hidden in the shadows.

When she approached, she noticed that despite its age, it was in relatively good condition. She was able to make her way around to the other side and found a small set of ladder rungs built directly into the side. Carefully, so as not to be surprised by any rotten wood, Maka climbed and hoisted herself onto the deck of the small ship.

There was no gold up here, but there were dozens and dozens of pieces of tech. Maka eagerly began to sift through them piece by piece. A few she recognized as prototypes of things she used today, but most were entirely foreign to her. They were carefully crafted, beautifully constructed, and she felt a feeling of awe wash over her with every item she examined.

Something caught her eye in the pile and she shifted things until she was able to pull it out. Maka gasped audibly as she pulled it out. It was a set of beautiful wings, like the ones she used at home but a thousand times better, jagged yet graceful and made of smooth white chrome. It reminded her of the pictures of angels from her storybooks as a child.

Running a delicate hand over it, Maka admired the craftsmanship, the ingenuity. She set it to the side, determined to look at it more once she explored the rest of the ship. She turned to the other side of the boat.

A skeletal hand pointed directly at her.

Her heart leapt to her throat, and Maka flung herself backwards. The hand didn't move, and she gathered her wits again to see that it was indeed a skeleton pointing at her. Slowly getting to her feet, Maka studied the thing.

Whoever it had been in life - and she could hazard a guess at who - had been large, larger than a human man, thick chested and tall. A large black hat still sat upon the horned head, eyes now just empty sockets and teeth yellowed and faded. The clothes apart from that had largely disintegrated, leaving ivory behind. The feet still disappeared into shabby boots however, and the hands each had six skeletal fingers, one set of which was wrapped around an enormous ruby.

Maka moved forward, and as she dodged around the pointing hand, she saw that it was gripping a small scrap of paper in its clasp. For a moment, she hesitated, caught between knowledge and wealth. She felt a little funny making the decision, but stepped closer to the body to pry the ruby out of the bones and shove it onto her pocket.

The place between her shoulder blades itched.

She turned again to the pointing hand and slipped the paper carefully from between the fingers. This was trickier, as she didn't want to rip it, but finally she managed to extricate it. Unraveling it, Maka was amazed to see the Common Tongue.

 _It will never be yours_.

Before she could even begin to parse out what that meant exactly, a huge sound rang out like a gong, like a bell, like a death knell.

* * *

Maka looked around frantically, but at first she couldn't see what was happening. The pirates were standing up, their heads and arms adorned with the treasure they had looted, appearing just as confused as she was, but then a rending, roaring sound shot forth, and the floor lurched. Maka felt herself slam against the small railing of the ship and the wind was knocked out of her. Shouts and screams came from the ground and she steadied herself to look out over the chaos.

The floor had opened up like the giant jaws of a sea creature, and all the treasure was tipping towards the empty space. The pirates were all desperately trying to keep their footing, but they were overbalanced from the weight of all the treasure on them. Maka watched as they flailed helplessly, clawing at the gold that was slowly dragging them to their deaths.

A thump behind her caused her to turn away from the horror. Giriko stood behind her, a mad glint in his eye.

"Looks like we're all gonna die," he said in a voice that sounded nothing like a human's, "so we might as well have a bit a fun before we go." He grabbed one of his large gloves and pulled it off his hand to reveal an oversized meaty fist covered in oscillating blades. They began to spin and whir, droning like a hornet's nest.

He raised his arm and brought it down in a large arc. Maka dodged out of the way just in time, feeling the wind of his strike brush past her, and the blades splintered the wood of the deck, a horrible wrenching sound filling the air.

Maka grabbed one of the closest inventions and threw it at him. He swung his arm again and the contraption shattered into pieces. Maka flung item after item at him he swatted each away, a mad cackle bubbling forth from his as he did so.

"Enjoying yourself, bitch?" he crowed.

Fumbling in her pocket, Maka tried to free one of the pistols still in it, but she couldn't fit it out around the ruby. She slide between his legs just as he charged at her and tried to get to the ladder, but she heard the whirring of his blades and she had to duck and roll.

"I don't think so!" he screamed, looming over her. Maka felt her heart stop; there was no escape.

Just as he raised his arm again, Giriko froze like a statue. His blades stopped and his eye bulged. He fell to the side, twitching and gasped for air to reveal Medusa behind him, a single snake head pulled away from his neck again.

"But that poison will kill you," she said softly. His body spasmed a few more times before becoming still. Medusa stepped over his tangled legs as if it were nothing. "Are you hurt?"

"Can you get this boat working?" Maka yelled, ignoring the question. The floor groaned under them again and both women held their arms out for balance.

"Yes, but that will do us no good. We'll never be able to clear the planet's gravitational pull in time to escape the explosion. The main ship is already heading towards the door, but it's not fast or powerful enough either."

Maka turned to watch as the larger ship moved towards the opening. She stared hopelessly at it, gazing out to where Brew still sat in the ground, projecting the tiny planets.

Brew.

"We need to get back there!" she screamed, pointing at the door. "If we open the door to another planet, we'll be transported there instead!"

"How do you know?" cried Medusa.

"I don't! But it's our only chance!"

Medusa glared at her for a beat, then leapt to the prow of the boat where the controls sat covered in dust. "Let's get this thing in the air."

But Maka was already slipping her arms into the beautiful wings she had found earlier. There was a pinch between her shoulder blades as the needles injected into her spinal cord (they were long and sharp enough to get through the fabric of her jacket and shirt, though Maka normally wore shirts with small holes cut out when she wore them at home) and she felt the connection course through her. She concentrated on stretching them, and they unfurled behind her.

"What are you doing?" Medusa yelled over the noise of the dying planet.

"Opening the door," Maka said, testing her wings with a flap. They felt powerful. "Someone needs to control it. You need to get on the other side of it and then turn around to go through the other way."

"But-!"

"Just get there! I'll make sure it's open."

And she took off.

Nothing, nothing, could compare to the exhilaration of flying through the air of her own accord. The wings were perfect, better than any she had ever made, and they adjusted flawlessly to every turn she implemented. Maka wove between the falling towers of treasure, gold coins raining down like hail around her. She saw the main ship ahead of her, slowly picking up steam and approaching the gate. An engine roared to life behind her, and she knew Medusa must have gotten the small boat working. Desperate, Maka flapped harder and harder.

She made it to the deck of the ship where a terrified young alien was steering. "Get out and then turn around!" Maka screamed at her. "I'll open a new door!" The girl only turned to look at her, but Marie appeared from behind her, bandaged and unchained and shouted back, "Roger that!"

Maka flew the last few yards and burst out onto the surface of the planet. The rumbles were quieter, but she could see even there the rolling plains start to buckle and collapse, the jungle trees falling like Jikilian dominoes. She dropped below the outcropping of rock just as the larger ship passed overhead. Counting the seconds, Maka waited with bated breath.

Medusa's smaller ship finally shot by, and Maka flew up again. The main ship was making a wide turn, and Medusa was trying to maneuver the ancient aircraft into a tight enough about-face.

"C'mon, c'mon," Maka muttered, hovering near the holographic projections. Behind her, the treasure room collapsed in on itself, echoes of gold piece after gold piece tinkling off of each other as they were swallowed up by the open, pulsing core.

Both ships straightened towards her at the same time. They began to pick up speed, two giants barreling towards her. Maka looked through the tiny model of her galaxy, trying to find something she recognized.

The world broke apart. Fire engulfed everything. Maka tapped whatever planet she could and turned towards the gate, flapping desperately. The ships roared by her.

Everything was white, and then everything was black.

* * *

She was lying face down on a cloud.

No, not a cloud - a bed.

It was soft and gentle, like a mother's touch. Something she had not known in so long.

She couldn't breathe.

She was suffocating!

"Stop struggling!" someone called out. "Hey, someone help!"

Hands were on her shoulders, which felt weird, and Maka tried to move, tried to get the pillow out of her face. She tried to make words but nothing came out, everything was muffled, and there were voices trying to shush her-

"Maka, Maka! Please, you have to stop moving. You're going to hurt yourself."

Stein's voice cut through the haze in her mind. She tried to lean up to look at him, but there was something heavy weighing down her back.

"Maka," he said gently, and she turned to look.

The wings were still there. They were as graceful and pure as ever, but they were sprouting from the gnarled mess of her back. Her skin was red and raw, mangled like some sort animal had clawed her. She flexed one of the wings very gently, and it moved. Her skin burned as she did.

She couldn't see where her flesh ended and the metal began.

"Maka," Stein said quietly. "You were hit in the back with the explosion. I think… I think it grafted the wings in place. We won't be able to remove them."

* * *

Maka had a feeling she should go for a walk tonight.

It had been a few weeks since the explosion, and a few days since she'd been able to leave the hospital area of the ship. Eruka, an alien with oversized eyes and mouth and an oversized heart, had become the nurse, tending to both Maka and Marie (who had taken control of her ship again as soon as she'd stepped foot on it) as the weeks went on. Free, the other pirate sent back with the ship, seemed to have become the honorary first mate. The five identical aliens all worked the deck, indistinguishable and mousy.

Medusa had been tied up and locked in the brig.

Or at least, she had been.

"Going somewhere?" Maka asked lightly as she approached the lifeboat. Medusa turned to watch her. Maka winced a little as one of her new wings hit the door frame - she was still getting used to taking their size into account - but otherwise stepped lightly up to the woman who was untying the lead lines.

"I am," she said calmly. "I have no intention of being taken to prison once we reach Kaly Fornya. I will be leaving with this boat."

"You will?" Maka tried to keep the amusement out of her voice.

"I will."

"What if I try to stop you?"

Medusa cocked her head as she studied Maka carefully. "You're still too weak to fight me," she said plainly. "And I am far more familiar with my tech than you." A snake hissed.

"We can tell the authorities what you did, how you helped," Maka said quietly. "Your sentence will be shorter. And then you can be around."

The unspoken for me hung in the air as Medusa pursed her lips. "No," she said quietly. "I have no interest in that."

"You'd make a terrible mother," said Maka, with only a faint trace of bitterness.

Medusa opened her mouth to respond, but before she could a chirping interrupted her, and Crona shot out from her pocket to nuzzle against Maka's neck. "Yes, I supposed I would," replied Medusa, her eyes glittering. "Which is why you should care for Crona from now on. They were quite loyal while you were in the hospital, and a life on the run has never been in their best interest."

Maka smiled, a tired, resigned, hopeful smile. "So there's no convincing you?"

"None," she said brusquely, turning back to the boat. "But I wish you all the best in your future endeavors."

"What do you mean?"

Medusa threw the last rope into the lifeboat and opened the hatch in the hull that allowed it to get out. The wind whistled through the opening. Medusa had to shout a little to be heard over it.

"Didn't she tell you? I overheard the captain telling her dear doctor about it. It's a real honor. She's going to recommend you to the Solar Cadet Academy."

Maka scratched at Crona's head thoughtfully. "Sounds like a good deal."

Medusa jumped into the lifeboat. She turned to look at Maka for the last time. "It is. You'd be a fool not to take it. The headmaster is a smart man, if a little eccentric, and the school is bankrolled by the wealthy Evans family; they sent both their sons there."

"Oh yeah?"

The lifeboat hummed to life. "Yes. Quite a famous family." Medusa pressed buttons rapidly on the control panel, and the engines of the small boat. Over her shoulder she called, "But watch out for the younger one. I heard he's a piece of work."


End file.
